Equilibrium

Equilibrium
Starring
Christian Bale
Emily Watson
Taye Diggs

Introduction
Equilibrium is a film that is either loved or hated by fans for this reason, it can be seen as a rip-off of the Matrix, or can be seen as a film that has more story and used elements of the Matrix, but overall is a better film. I am the latter. This movie sets a good post-apocalyptic yet futuristic tone with overall a better story and good characters with good motivation behind them.

Acting
Christian Bale gets the majority of screen time in this film, giving us a bit of the lone hero style movie. Christian Bale plays a Grammatron Cleric, the best of the best whose job is to hunt down and eliminate people who resist taking a drug that inhibits war by stripping humans of emotions. Trained with a special form of combat arts, the Clerics are next to unstoppable and Christian Bale is unstoppable. The movie shows us two versions of the character John Preston, an emotionless soldier who has the ability to sense when others are feeling. This character is ruthless and even kills his best friend emotionlessly as he had joined the resistance. However, as the film progresses, Preston accidentally drops his last vile of the drug and therefore misses his scheduled dosage. He slowly begins to feel emotions again. This presents us with some amazing scenes in which Bale wrenches our hearts as he begins to see the beauty of things and also the corruption. As I said before, most of the screen time is dedicated to Preston but Bale holds it well. Bale’s scenes are all worth watching and there is a definite progression in his character and massive growth which Christian Bale pulls off wonderfully.

Captured by John Preston for being a sense-offender, Emily Watson’s character doesn’t get a lot of screen time and is only seen in three locations, most of which is a barren room with two chairs, a table and a security camera. However, despite this, Watson pulls off a character that changes John Preston. Her scenes are short, but she definitely does magic in those scenes considering all she has to work with is herself. There’s really no environment or distractions, so it all comes down to the acting. She is very believable and makes a character that you feel for even though she only has a few short scenes. Her final is the most spectacular in which she is executed and Preston is too late to save her. She only says one sentence in this scene yet everything is said through her facial expressions and body movement. It is definitely a fantastic scene.

After Preston kills his old partner, he is assigned a new one played by Taye Diggs. Also gifted with the ability to sense emotions, Diggs plays a very suspicious character who is after Preston’s job and wants to bring him down. Throughout most of the film, it is left very uncertain as to what Diggs character Brandt is up to and what his motivations are. All is naturally revealed at the end. Brandt also has some flaws which are that he is fairly cocky, believing that he is worthy and capable of bringing down Preston. At first, Diggs feels quite flat as a character, his dialogue seems choppy. As the movie continues though, Diggs finds his character and there is a subtle yet definite improvement in how the character is portrayed. The sparring scene between Brandt and Preston is quite interesting as Brandt is probing Preston for information (who at this point is hiding that he can feel). The cockiness of Brandt becomes very evident in this scene, however, he is put back in his place by Preston at the end of the scene. It’s an interesting character dynamic that becomes very important to the end of the movie.

The rest of the cast does a superb job, from Sean Bean who briefly plays Preston’s old partner, to Preston’s children (who do a very good job of being creepy I might add) with secrets of their own. Overall, the acting is well done on all parties.

Cinematography
I absolutely love the cinematography in this film. They played with everything, shot angles, lighting, editing, sound, it’s very well done. This film has its own style, one to set it apart and that is good as most films go with a fairly standard way of shooting things. This film was obviously used as an opportunity to try and communicate different emotions and motifs through the way it is filmed. One of the things that stands out to me are some of the gunfight scenes. There is a special form of combat the Clerics use when doing gun battles and the first time we see it is very cool as it is all dark except for the flashes of the gun. We can see people running and dying and whatnot, but only in glimpses as things are only illuminated whenever guns go off.

Story
The concept of this film is good and quite believable too as it seems like something we would do. However, the actual details and elements of the plot could have used more crafting. It sometimes has the tendency to seem cliche using plot elements that we are very familiar to. It does redeem itself in the end by turning something that would otherwise be cliche into something fairly original for an action movie. This film does have its twists and turns which are nice and throws some elements at you that you definitely do not see coming. Overall, it’s a good idea, just needs a bit more sculpting and revising in my opinion.

Conclusion
Once all is said and done, this movie makes for a great film in an overused and cliche genre of post-apocalyptic sci-fi films. The acting is definitely what holds this movie together and dares to be original (though not always succeeding). The action in this film is enjoyable to watch and the message behind this film is a classic for science fiction, one that is being lost sight of in recent days in the film industry.

7.5/10

Already saw that movie, I myself liked it... But it wasn't nothing to go to the stars...